Cleaning, Crafting, and Chemo

There's not much crafting going on here. I haven't felt like doing much of anything since we found out at the beginning of the month that the chemo regimen that Phil has been on since April didn't work. He's been on a drug holiday since his last treatment at the end of September; we see the doctor on the 28th and will find out what he's thinking about the next line of treatment.

We discovered last weekend that we have a serious problem in our master bedroom closet: the clips that hold the Closet Maid shelving to the wall are pulling out of the wall! So much for their attached toggle "bolts." For now, we've dealt with the problem until we can find a more permanent solution, but this got me started on taking a hard look at my clothes collection (I think that's the proper word) and weeding out things. I haven't finished, but I've already moved on to the craft room, which I could hardly walk in because of everything I threw in there when we had company a couple of weeks ago! I've made progress, taking piles of patterns back to the basement where I store them, as well as properly folding and storing fabric remnants. I've also gone through my file cabinet, tossing most of what was in there; old papers, saving the ones that are blank on one side for scrap, and recycling the rest, and now I'm going through old magazines, tearing out useful ideas. Phil jokingly said that the garbage people are going to charge us extra for all the recycling we'll have this week!

Anyone wanna come and help?

More Fabric Folding

The fabric folding project I began here, I decided, needs to be finished, so on Saturday, I dragged another two tubs of fabric up two flights of stairs to the bedroom. I think I have now folded all the large pieces (except for fleece.) Oh, my gosh, I can't believe what I found. Can anyone tell me why I purchased nearly six yards of navy blue broadcloth? I honestly have no recollection of buying some of the pieces that now fill two of the large totes (in addition to the totally filled smaller one.) I did find a nice blue fabric that I think will work well for a slipcover for the straight chair that goes with my dressing table. I really shouldn't have to buy any fabric for a long, long time.

I still have three bags of smaller pieces to sort through, and I have to decide what to do with the fleece pieces, but I can see the end in sight. It is nice to be able to go to my tote labeled "pink and purple" or "blue" and find something I can use for a project.

Organizing & Sewing

I went crazy on Saturday - I decided to organize some of my fabric. Whatever possessed me, I don't know. I have four large tubs of fabric scraps, plus any number of piles in various places in the house . . . I had to drag the tub up from the basement, then I proceeded to dump the contents on the great room floor (in view of the TV, of course.)

This is the mess I had to contend with. I folded and folded until I had to go to bed. After three hours, this is all I had to show for my time:


Three neat piles of fabric folded into 6" x 13" rectangles, and balanced precariously on one another.
And this much is left to sort and fold, which I worked on Sunday evening, but I was tired and didn't get much done. The mess still sits there, gathering dog fur!


I had planned to finish a shirt on Friday night, but discovered that I had sewn one sleeve in upside down. It's hard to tell the right and wrong side of the fabric, but still, I should have noticed that the notches for the front and back weren't in the right place. Of course, I had serged the seam - it rarely happens that mistakes are found before doing so! Today I decided it was time to undo that seam and finish the blouse, which I did. Here is the finished shirt.

I've made three other shirts from this pattern, and have one to go. The pattern is by Lois Hinse - the CasaBlanca blouse, pattern #5707. What I like about Lois's patterns is that they fit well and are relatively easy to make; in addition, they can be made from a variety of fabrics. For this shirt, I've used cottons and silky fabrics. One change I did make is to use bias tape on the neckline instead of serging the edge, folding it over, and top stitching it. I discovered that was nearly impossible when working with silky fabrics. The bias tape gives the neckline more stiffness and I think it looks better.

The next blouse is pink, and I want to do machine embroidery around the hemline, or at least part of it. I have some ideas from the November/December 2004 issue of "Designs in Machine Embroidery." (I bought that issue when I was trying to determine which machine embroidery magazine I preferred. I finally settled on "Creative Machine Embroidery" after realizing that "Designs in Machine Embroidery" assumed that everyone owns a top-of-the-line embroidery machine, which I don't.)